Newsletter April 2015

COST Action ISCH1302

Spring has started and it is time for the second ISCH1302 newsletter! Let´s look ahead and see what 2015 will bring us.

This month (15-17) we´ll meet in Cyprus where the Working Groups will present the progress they have made during the last 6 months. The objectives of the Action will be evaluated; are we on track to meet our goals in time? And of course targets will be set for the coming 6 months (and beyond).

Short Term Scientific Missions 2015

In 2015 (early stage) researchers will be funded to go on a Short Term Scientific Mission and to visit other institutions. In 2014 the Action funded 3 STSMs, this year the allocated budget offers the possibility to fund 7 STSMs. 6 STSM applications have been already been approved and a last application is currently under review.

Explore, understand and examine factors affecting length of stay in a forensic population in The Netherlands, Ireland and the UK using the Dundrum and a questionnaire about patient characteristics to deepen the understanding of the dynamics between patient characteristics of long stay patients and non-long stay patients. The research might as well provide an insight into factors that might differ between EU countries, their jurisdictions and long stay/non-long stay patients.

Contribute to and broaden the knowledge about (unmet) needs and quality of life of long-term forensic psychiatric patients. For this research the model of the CANFOR will be used to provide adequate assessment of patients perspective on their own recovery and attainment of treatment needs within a forensic environment.

Ms Shazmin Majid will visit the Institute of Institute of Forensic Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia from 10/08/2015-24/08/2015

Desk study to access reports of visits from the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) to identify those relevant to forensic institutions and long stay. A framework to group recommendations the CPT has made will be developed to see how these impact on long stay and how they change over time.

Investigate approaches to psycho-social interventions available at long stay wards, understanding how psycho-social interventions are devised for patients, comparing the differences between psycho-social interventions on offer between two facilities and gaining insight into service user perspectives on psycho-social interventions.

Mr Ian Callaghan will visit the Pompefoundation, Nijmegen, the Netherlands from 03/08/2015-13/08/2015

Investigate service user involvement in forensic services in The Netherlands and explore the similarities and differences with that found in forensic services in England. And investigate the recovery orientation of forensic services in The Netherlands and contrast this with the increasing focus on recovery and social inclusion in forensic services in England.

Develop a database to collect already available socio demographic, clinical and criminological data concerning forensic patients and their clinical pathways in Germany, Ireland, UK and the Netherlands to validate findings from a recent study that has been done in Italy, in the European context.

Call for Blog Contributions

Our Action recently started a LFPC blog. The idea is to create a platform where topics related to LFPC can be discussed, where different stakeholders can express their visions and where interesting (research) activities can be presented. We aim to publish new contributions on a weekly basis and therefore your help is needed.

Who?Anyone can send in their contribution as long as the topic is related to LFPC. The blog aims to have contributions from different stakeholders, e.g. clinicians, researchers, service providers, lawyers, politicians and/or (ex-) service users and their relatives.

How?By writing a small paper of approx. 750 words on the topic of your choice, taking into account to mention references. Your contribution will be reviewed in order to optimize its’ visibility for online search engines (Google) and be published upon your final approval.

When?There is no concrete deadline, but in order to be able to publish on a weekly basis we pursue to have a buffer of a couple of contributions that can be published immediately. So, don´t doubt and send in your interesting piece of work as soon as possible!

Are you interested in contributing? Click here to see some former contributions. If you have any questions or an interesting contribution, please contact the Actions´ dissemination manager (isch1302@gmail.nl).

Training Schools 2015

This summer we´ll also organise 2 Training Schools:

The first one will be in Koper (Slovenia, 14-17 July) and will focus on quality of life and meeting needs within a forensic psychiatric context as well as on how to assess both concepts within the restrictive context of LFPC. More specifically, the needs brought about by (severe) psychiatric symptoms and long-term residence in a highly restrictive setting, and how meeting these needs might optimize quality of life of patients in LFPC.

The second Training School will take place in Warwick (United Kingdom, 9-11 September) and aims at enhancing knowledge on how to map, analyse and compare advantages and disadvantages of the different EU forensic systems as well as how to take into account the interplay of all the stakeholders (law, policies, politics, mental health services) when defining ´best practice´ for LFPC.

9999

We´d like to make you aware of a new documentary about forensic psychiatry in Belgium by Ellen Vermeulen, called 9999. For more information see also: www.9999themovie.com

Finally...

... on the 8th of October 2015 we´ll have our Annual Conference in Split (Croatia). In our next newsletter we´ll present the full program of that day, as well as the exact program for the MC and WG meetings (7-9 October 2015).